Rolling-mill practice.



No. 356,675. PATENTED JUNE 11, 1907 T. S. BLAIR, 5n. RGLLIN-G MILL PRACTICE.

APPLICATION TILED JULY 13, 1908.

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AIPLIOATIOH FILED JULY 13, .1906.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE THOMAS b. BLAIR, .llt, ()F ELMIIURST, ILLIXOlS.

ROLLING-MILL PRACTICE.

Application filed July 13 To rz// whom it 111 1! FUN/061':

Be it known that l, Tuonas S. BLAIR, Jr.,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Elmhurst, in the countyof l.)u Page and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful improvement in llolling-.\lill Practice, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the practice in rolling-mills of rolling the ingot into a bloom, and subsequently into the finished product, such as a billet, a rail, a beam, or the like, by feeding it, through the medium of feed tables, back and forth through successive passes in each of the series of rollstands employed.

()ne objection to the practice thus outlined is, that it requires the use of vertically movable and reversibly acting feed-tables, manipulators and a transfer for each rollstand, involving, for operating them, cumbersome hydraulic, electric or pneumatic mechanism, which is expensive both to install and maintain. A still more important objection is, that the operation of rolling is essentially slow, owing to the fact that the work, in undergoing rolling, must be fed back and forth through a plurality of passes in each, or in each of different roll-stands in the series thereof employed, before another piece of work can be subjected to the action of the same stand. This is because the tables on opposite sides of a roll-stand have to be brought to the level of each pass, the one for feeding into it from one side and the other for receiving the work' as it emerges from that pass on the opposite side, whence the receiving-table is moved, with the work upon it, to the level of a second pass, through which the work is fed by the reverse action of the table in the opposite direction and emerges upon the first table, which has meantime been moved to the level of the second pass to receive therefrom the work. Obviously, therefore, the vertically movable feed-tables preclude the use, at one time, of more than one roll-stand on each piece of work until the entire rolling-operation of that stand is completed preparatory to transferring the work, for its further reduction, to the next roll-stand, where it is acted upon in the same way, to prepare it for further reduction in another roll-stand; and so on to the end. By thus precluding the feeding of ingots or blooms in continuous succession to the first roll-stand, delay ensues which ma- Specifieation of Letters Patent.

Patented June 1 l, 1907.

,1906. Serial No. 326,001.

and. moreover, the interruption in feeding is liable, particularly when stoppages occur by reason of disorganization of the cumbersome machinery referred to, to expose the work unduly to the cooling influence of the surrounding atmosphere and .necessitate reheating it, in transit, to adapt it to be further rolled.

The primary object of my invention is to avoid this delay by enabling the work to be fed through the entire system of roll-stands, and back and forth through successive passes in stands, in uninterrupted or continuous succession; and my invention consists in the method I have devised for accomplishing this and other objects.

For the practice of my invention, I prefer to employ an ordinary roll-stand equipment used in rolling-mills, but peculiarly arranged relative to each other and with stationary, non-reversible feed-tables which, for performing the work to the best advantage, should be modified in particulars of construction hereinafter explained.

Referring to the accompanying drawings Figure l is a plan diagram of a rolling-mill system showing the roll-stands and tables relatively arranged for the practice of my invention. Fig. 2 is a similar, enlarged view showing the first two roll-stands and the tables that co-operate with them. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic section taken at line 3 on Fig. 1, viewed in the direction of the arrow and enlarged. Fig. 4 is an enlarged view in side elevation, partly sectional, of the two stands and the tables represented in Fig. 3; and Fig. 5, a section taken at the line on Fig. 4 and viewed in the direction of the arrow.

The representation of the machinery employed is, for the most part, diagrammatic to avoid unnecessarily multiplying the drawings to illustrate details, the mechanism, except as to the feature presented in Fig. 5 and as to the stationary roller-tables hereinafter described, being the same as that with which it is common to equip rolling-mills, and therefore familiar to those skilled in the art to which my invention relates; so that this well-known mechanism does not require further illustration, nor description as to details of construction.

The first or initial roll-stand is represented at 1 as a three-high-roll stand, wit h one groove in the pass between the upper and middle rolls, indicated at 1*, and one groove 1n the pass between the middle and lower rolls, indlcated at 1. The second roll-stand,

is in. line with but somewhat offset from the latter to leave its upper-pass groove 2* in the line and bring the lower-pass groove 2 beyond it for feeding therefrom to the upperpass groove 3 of a third roll-stand 3, like the stands 1 and 2 and located adjacent to the stand 1, with its lower-pass groove 3 in posi tion to feed toward the upper pass of a fourth roll-stand 4, placed adjacent to the stand 2 and like the others, but represented as containing two grooves 49 in its upper pass and two grooves 4 in its lower pass. A fifth roll-stand, indicated at 5 in Fig. 1," and like the preceding stands except that it is represented with three grooves 5 in its upper pass and three grooves 5 in its lower pass, is placed adjacent to the stand 3 in line with a sixth roll-stand, 6, which may be a two-highroll stand with four grooves 6 in its pass, as indicated in Fig. 1. A-seventh roll-stand,

represented at 7 in Fig. 1, having three rolls,

with one groove 7 in its upper pass and two grooves 7 in its lower pass, is located adjacent to the stand 6, and is shown to be endwise coincident with the latter. An eighth roll-stand, represented at 8 in Fig. 1, .like and located adjacent to the stand 5, is shown to be endwise coincident with the latter, and may be provided with two grooves 8 in its upper pass, and three grooves 8 in its lower ass, as indicated. The relative positioning of the roll-stands shown in Fig. 1 enables the rolls of the stand 1 to be connected by suitable ea'ring,'indicated at 9, with those of-the stan 3'for driving therolls of both stands by the same engine, represented at 10; the rolls of both stands 2 and 4 to be connected by suitable gearing, indicated at 9*, to be driven by one engine, 11; the rolls of both stands 6 and 7 to be driven by one engine, 12 and those of both stands 5 and 8 to be driven by one engine, 13. The ingot to be rolled takes the following-described course, indicated by arrows on Fig. 1:

A stationary roller-table indicated at 14, and of the ordinary construction, leads to the upper pass of the roll-stand 1 and is supplied with ingots, as usual, along the larrytrack, indicated at 15 in Fig. 1. From the opposite side of the pass-groove 1 extends a similar roller-table 15, the rollers of which are like the roller represented at r in Fig. 5 with an ingot 1 upon it. A feed-table 16, like and below the table 15, leads from the outer end of the latter to the pass-groove 1 from which a table 17 takes and leads the work to the upper pass-groove 2 of the stand 2. This last-named table has each of several of its rollers nearest the stand 1 provided on one end with a circular flange or collar 1- reaching to the line of feed through the passgroove 1*, for the ingot-turning plllpost hereinafter explained. As the work emerges V I from the pass-groove 1", it encounters, near represented at 2, is s milar to the stand 1 and 1 one edge-portion. and moves along the peripheries of the narrow collars r in its path until it fully clears and therefore becomes released from the bite of the rolls forming that pass; whereupon it turns, by gravity, sidewise with its adjacent side upon the lower surfaces of the rollers r. Each, or an y desired number, of the succeeding tables, hereinafter mentioned, may be provided, near their delivery-ends, like the table 17, with a set of collars 1" to produce automatically, in the manner described, this required turning between roll-stands, of the work being rolled. V

At the delivery-side of the upper-pass groove) in the stand 2 is provided a stationary roller-table 18, and a like table 19 below it leads to the lower-pass groove 2*, whence another roller-table 20 leads to the upperpass groove 3 of the roll-stand 3, the work emerging upon a delivery-table '21, from which it is taken and carried by a table 22 to the lower-pass groove 3*. From this last named pass the work emerges upon the table 23, which carries it to the upper-pass groove 4* of the stand 4, and itemerges from that pass upon a table 24, whence it is transferred to the table 25, to be carried by the latter to the ion-er-passgroove 4 of that stand.

The delivery-table 26, which leads from the lower-pass groove 4 to the upper-pass groove 5 in the roll-stand 5, may have interposed in it a shearing device, indicated at 26, of common construction, fogcutting oil' the rear end of the work, and a similar shearingdevice may be interposed in the path of the work, at 26*, for cutting off the forward end of the work. The table 26 carries the work to the upper-pass groove 5*, from which it emerges upon a table 27 and is transferred to the table 28, which carries itto the lowerpass groove 5*, whence it emerges upon a table 29 to be carried to the upper-pass groove 6 ,in roll-stand 6. From the lastnamed pass a table 30 receives the work and delivers it to a table 31 leading to the lowerin the stand 7. To all intents pass groove I and purposes the upper pass of stand 6 and are upper and, lower the lower pass of stand 7 passesin the same stand, but the two stands are provided because of the change ol direction required at that point of the moving Work, to avoid unduly lengthening out the system of roll-stands, and, more especially to avoid objectionable roll-changes. From the pass groove 7" the work is carried on a table 3'2 to an upper pass-groove S of stand emerging therefrom upon a table 33 to be delivered upon a table 34 leading to a lowerpass groove 8" of said stand 8. The work emerges from the pass-groove 8 upon a table leading to the upper-pass groove 7 in roll-stand 7, and from the delivery-side of that pass it is carried off on a table 36, as to the hot bed.

Guides, such as the guide shown at g in Figs. 4 and 5, are provided, as usual, for directing the course of the Work on the'tables from one pass to'another; and, of course, thelengths of the tables vary, increasing in succession, to accommodate the increasing length of the Work in its progress. Moreover, as will be understood, the system of roll-stands and stationary tables maybe curtailed or extended according to requirement for particular work.

The work leaves the up er pass of rollstand No. 3 as a billet, anr instead of run ning all billets throu 'hthe succeeding rollstands, alternate billets may be run oil, over an extension 22' of the table 22, to be rolled in a billet-mill, which is not shown, but involves substantially the same arrangement, as to mechanism, as that shown and described of the rolling-mill.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that my invention involves passing the Work initially through the upper pass of the first rollstand and thence uninterruptedly throu h the entire rollsystem, thereby rendering the operation continuous from beginning to end, with the advantages of avoiding delay, removing all need of reheating the Work, and greatly simplifying the rolling-mill equipment.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is--- 1. The method of rolling which consists in feeding a plurality of blanks in succession, simultaneously and continuouslv in relatively opposite directions through difi'erent passes of the same roll-stand.

2, The method of rolling which consists in feeding a plurality of blanks in successlon, simultaneously and continuously in relatively o posite directions through dilferent passes oi the same roll-stand and feedingsaid articles thence in succession and continuously through the passes of a succeeding roll-stand.

THOMAS s. BLAIR, JR.

In presence of A. U. THORIEN, J. H. LANDES. 

